Gina Rinehart, a mining magnate worth an estimated £19 billion, has advised those jealous of the wealthy to "spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working" in order to be successful.
Miss Rinehart, 56, also rounded on Australia's "class warfare", insisting it was billionaires such as herself who were doing more than anyone to help the poor.
She warns that Australia risks following European economies ruined by "socialist" policies, high taxes, and excessive regulation.
Miss Reinhart stated there was "no monopoly" on becoming a millionaire.
In May Miss Rinehart was declared the richest woman in the world, after building upon an estimated £13 billion mining empire inherited from her late father, Lang Hancock, in 1992.
The comments come from Miss Rinehart's regular column in Australian Resources and Investment magazine and have provoked widespread criticism.
Wayne Swan, Australia's deputy prime minister, said: "These sorts of comments are an insult to the millions of Australian workers who go to work and slog it out to feed the kids and pay the bills."
Ged Kearney, the Australian Council of Trade Unions president, said her views were "stuck in the nineteenth century".
Mr Kearney went on to say: "Gina Rinehart's comments are the product of someone who has never had to earn a living and an insult to millions of working Australians who didn't have the head start of inheriting a fortune from their father and of being able to bully politicians by virtue of their inherited wealth."
Mr Swan is an outspoken critic of Australia's mining tycoons, and he added that Miss Rinehart clearly regarded Australians as "lazy workers who drink and socialise too much".
